Displaced communities respond to the challenges and losses of their changed circumstances by drawing on their remaining resources. The challenge for those working in such contexts is how to effectively combine these community initiatives with their own organisational resources. This paper reports a study of 112 residents of four camps for internally displaced Ugandans. The respondents were primarily concerned with the structural, social and economic difficulties that affected them. Those problems most frequently identified were the fundamental issues of food, health and poverty, which were perceived to stem primarily from the way the camps were structured and resourced. Respondents described four main response strategies: assistance from others (including neighbours, relatives, agencies and community organisations); work and income generation; personal characteristics (e.g. determination, ability to work hard); and social support.

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This report describes the psychosocial interventions of AVSI [an international nongovernmental organization (INGO) operating in Uganda since 1984] in Kitgum District of northern Uganda. These interventions are part of the educational programmes aimed at supporting vulnerable youth through vocational training. Apart from the educational support, the beneficiaries of the programme are also offered psychosocial support. This support is meant to help youth who have undergone difficult, and at times, traumatic experiences during the insecurity that has lasted for two decades and affected almost all families in northern Uganda. For many of the youth, access to education cannot be the only means to empower them to overcome psychosocial problems; but in combination with counselling, they can be supported to gain self confidence and to redefine their roles as independent and important members of their communities.

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There is increasing attention given to participatory projects with marginalized children and young people, in the absence of child protection. In Nepal, a process was developed to provide a framework for more systematic participation of children in psychosocial programming, geared towards facilitating the reintegration for former child soldiers. The process development followed seven steps with the children, including culturally grounded concepts of psychosocial wellbeing and problems, desired outcomes, utilization of existing resources, responsive activities and development of indicators in order to monitor project activities. The result was a series of Child Led Indicators (CLI), which represented markers of psychosocial wellbeing that children prioritized, recognized in others, and could monitor throughout a project cycle. Development and implementation of the CLI tool revealed a number of challenges to the implementation and effectiveness of participatory tools for children, which echo the growing the critique of participatory programming. This paper will describe the framework as well as the results of a pilot CLI implementation.

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Thousands of Iraqis have settled in Egypt since 2003, escaping death threats, torture, kidnappings and military attacks to face uncertainty in their lives and increasing strain on the psychosocial challenges in their new lives. This explorative study describes the psychosocial stress faced by these Iraqi refugees in Egypt. Two hundred and four Iraqis in Egypt filled in a checklist focussing on four groups of stress factors. The data provided by this study demonstrate the contribution of violence to Iraqi refugees' life from a number of sources. More than 56% have experienced multiple traumatic situations before immigration and the refugees themselves report major impacts on their health, mental health and socio-economic demands. A motivated desire to return home was preferred by only one third of respondents.

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In this report the author, an Afghan woman, describes her personal and professional development while working with an international nongovernmental organization in her country. In 1996, under the Taliban regime, she started to work on a project battling malnutrition with the Action Contre la Faim (ACF). She later took part in a psychosocial project to assist women and children. Her professional experiences and personal life are strongly interrelated. The psychosocial work has profoundly changed her situation and her outlook on life.

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La atención para proyectos de participación para niños y adolescentes marginalizados que carecen de protección está creciendo. En Nepal, se ha desarrollado un proceso que ofrece un marco para la participación infantil más sistemática en programas psicosociales para facilitar la reintegración de ex niños soldados. El proceso constó de siete fases que incluyen conceptos culturalmente específi cos de bienestar y problemas psicosociales, resultados deseados, usos de recursos existentes, actividades receptivas y desarrollo de indicadores para poder observar las actividades del proyecto. El resultado es una serie de indicadores dirigidos por niños (IDN) que representan los marcadores de bienestar psicosocial que los niños creen importantes, que reconocen en otros y que pueden observar a lo largo del ciclo del proyecto. El desarrollo y la implementación del instrumento IDN han relevado los desafíos enfrentados por la implementación y la efi cacia de herramientas de participación infantil, los cuales son un eco de las crecientes críticas sobre la programación participatoria. Este estudio describe tanto el marco como los resultados de la implementación piloto de los IDN.

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В последнее время все больше внимания привлекают партисипаторные проекты по работе с неблагополучными детьми и молодежью в ситуации отсутствия их защиты. В Непале была начата инициатива по более систематическому привлечению детей в психосоциальные программы, направленные на реинтеграцию бывших детей- солдат. Работа с детьми строилась на семи аспектах, включая культуро-обусловленные концепты психосоциального благополучия и психосоциальных проблем, желаемые результаты, использование существующих ресурсов, развитие восприимчивости, развитие индикаторов для мониторинга работы проекта. В результате был получен ряд Индикаторов в работе с детьми (Child led indicators -CLI), являющихся маркерами психосоциального благополучия, которым дети отдали предпочтение, узнали в других и смогли отследить в ходе всего проекта. Развитие и применение инструмента CLI обнаружило ряд проблем, которые напомнили о растущей критике вокруг партисипаторных программ. Данная статья описывает структуру программы, а также результаты применения пробной версии CL1.

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Available on: www.psychosocialnetwork.net GLOBAL RESOURCE KIT OF ORIENTATION AND TRAININGMATERIALS Used to disseminate and implement the Inter-Agency Standing Committee Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings (IASC MHPSS Guidelines). This Resource Kit contains 43 examples of Orientation and Training materials designed to disseminate and integrate the IASC MHPSS Guidelines globally. It offers service providers with examples of actual power point presentations and seminars, along with descriptions of how to assess a training groups needs, facilitate discussions, use case scenarios and more. A GUIDE FOR DEVELOPING ORIENTATION SEMINARS Used to disseminate and implement the Inter-Agency Standing Committee Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings (IASC MHPSS Guidelines). This guide includes samples of Orientation Seminars that service providers can utilise, with modi�cations for their context, within their work settings. The sample seminars are for: Food security staff; Water, sanitation and hygiene staff; Donors; Media The 6 part seminar design used in these samples is offered as one model that can be used for the development of other Orientation Seminars. The Resource Kit and Orientation Seminar Guide were prepared by Nancy Baron for the IASC Reference Group on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings / March 2009

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The situation in Southern Sudan poses strong challenges for the development of Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) services. Local government structures are weak and the health care system is hardly functioning at the primary health care level in terms of human resource, infrastructure and medical equipment. To develop MHPSS in such a context requires a strong focus on capacity building of the local staff and awareness activities on the community level though participatory mechanisms. This article describes a programme in Yei River County in Southern Sudan that uses a public health framework, targeting different levels (individual, family and community), and includes both prevention and treatment. Despite the formidable challenges, the programme demonstrates that it is feasible to implement MHPSS activities in a resource poor, post conflict setting through a community based approach in which relief, rehabilitation and development are complementary.

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Il existe une attention croissance pour les projets participatifs avec des enfants marginalisés et des jeunes ne bénéfi iant pas de protection de l’enfance. Au Népal, un procédé a été conçu pour offrir une structure pour une participation plus systématique des enfants dans un programme psychosocial visant à faciliter la reintegration d’anciens enfants-soldats. La progression a eu lieu en sept étapes avec les enfants, en incluant des concepts d’origine culturelle sur le bien-être psychosocial et les problèmes, les résultats désirés, l’utilisation des ressources existantes, les activités  réceptives, et la conception d’indicateurs pour évaluer les activités du projet. Il en a résulté une série d’indicateurs fournis par des enfants (CLI), qui représentaient les indicateurs de bien-être social que les enfants privilégiaient, reconnaissaient dans autrui, et contrôleraient pendant le cycle du projet. La conception et la réalisation de l’instrument CLI ont dévoilé un certain nombre de défi s dans le domaine de la realization et de l’effi cacité d’instruments participatifs pour les enfants, faisant écho aux critiques croissantes sur les programmes participatifs. Cet article présente la structure ainsi que les résultats d’une réalisation-pilote de CLI.

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